Reading2

Marcus Thomas drinks his morning cup of coffee deep underground. At 800 metres below the surface, he’s in the belly of Mount Owen in the South Island’s Kahurangi National Park.

What is Marcus in the belly of?

• A cave

• Mt Owen

• Underground

• South Island

Nearby Bee Fradis, a fellow caver, huddles in her sleeping bag. It’s hard to get up when the air is just one degree warmer than the inside of a fridge.

What does huddles mean?

• move apart

• run away

• to crowd together

• lying down

After a breakfast of rehydrated food, the group of five will put on caving overalls – still damp and cold from the day before.

What is rehydrated food?

• to restore fluid to dry food

• to dry food

• lots of nice food

• put flavor in food

Three more days lie ahead before these underground explorers will return to the outside world and daylight.

What will the explorers return to?

• home cooked meals

• underground

• the outside world and daylight

• out to the sunlight

To most of us, the caving trips of Marcus Thomas sound like crazy endurance tests.

What does endurance mean?

• able to run really fast

• the ability to withstand hardship or adversity

• a way to move around

• having lots of ideas

He and his team-mates are hoping to prove that the Bulmer cave system is much larger than previously thought – and today might be the day.

What are they hoping to prove?

• the Bulmer cave system is much larger than previously thought

• how fit the team-mates are

• it is a very short cave

• people can live in caves

If they pull it off, the team will make history. It all depends on the journey of a small trickle of green dye.

What does the journey depend on?

• on the history of the trip

• how many people are on the trip

• green dye

• how fast the men can walk

Five years ago, one of Marcus’s team-mates, Neil Silverwood, made this same trip. Neil climbed Mount Owen,

What did Neil climb?

• a deep cave

• Mount Owen

• another mountain

• Mount Arthur

Neil had a theory the stream at the back of the cavern fed right through the mountain to Blue Creek on the north side.

What was Neil's theory?

• the stream stops at Blue Creek

• the stream ran very deep underground

• the stream ran right through the cavern

• the stream runs through the mountain to Blue Creek

If this were true, it would mean there was an underground connection between the south and north sides of the mountain.

What is an underground connection?

• something that stops underground

• something that joins underground

• something that runs underground

• something that makes a deep pool underground